Jesus Is Still Awkward

Jesus Is Still Awkward

Maybe that seems disrespectful, maybe even rude, but I don’t mean it that way.

We all want comfort, right? If something is uncomfortable, we assume it isn’t right.

Just like marriage, we want it to feel natural and not take a lot of effort. It is supposed to be a dreamy, easy relationship.

We all want things to feel normal.

We want to feel like we are at home.

But let’s just say, especially for those that don’t believe or those that struggle in their beliefs, that there is a God and that Jesus is the Son of God.

Would God’s ways, the all knowing, all powerful and all good God, would his ways feel natural to us?

Growing up in a world that shuns most things related to God, would it feel comfortable and easy to worship God?

Would it take some effort to really explore and know God?

Today, 3 and half years into rededicating my life to Christ, I want you to know that it is still somewhat awkward for me at times. It isn’t all the time, of course. I have a sense of peace and trust that allows me to be freer than ever, but I also live in tension.

I spent years and years and years, filling my brain with ideas and thoughts that have nothing to do with God and are often in complete opposition. Just like our health, when we spend a long time feeding ourselves the wrong things and not exercising, it takes a long time to get back to a place that is healthy. It’s even hard to convince yourself that those brownies aren’t secretly good for you in some way.

And God is like that too. It’s hard to over turn all those ideas that aren’t good. We aren’t even aware of many of them. At the same time, it’s hard to convince our little minds that God’s ways, which are so contrary to ours, are good.

But, the truth is that God’s ways aren’t our ways. Thank goodness! The Lord knows and sees the messes we make.

All of this said, it makes God doubly hard to understand. On the one hand, he is God and that means we just can’t grasp everything that he is or can do. But on top of that, our culture drives us toward easy comfort day in and day out and that makes God not only hard to understand, but even feel awkward at times.

But awkward doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It only means it doesn’t fit the mold we have built for ourselves.

What if the mold we built for ourselves is wrong? What if some how we missed the whole point and have based our lives on truths and ways that aren’t really truths?

That’s what I did. And it makes following Jesus uncomfortable and awkward, but it also makes it more exciting. It is more exciting to know that there is something better in store for me than what I could imagine. It is exciting to know that there is a place to go for truth, the Bible. It is exciting to know that God’s adventures are so much more fulfilling than my own fleeting efforts at fun.

What’s the point of this? The point is that God is worth pursuing. He won’t lead you down the path you ask for or the path you thought you would go down. And, it won’t be comfortable, it might even be awkward, but maybe that is a good thing. God’s ways are awkward to this world; so if you feel that tension, don’t be scared by it. Don’t be turned off by it, but realize you just might be headed in the right direction for the first time in your life.